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for Young Writers

TIM WintonAWARD

2019

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ContentsLower Primary

Two Travellers ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������4

The Queen and Rosebud’s Escape ��������������������������������������������������6

The Escape ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������9

Middle Primary

A Deeper Darkness ����������������������������������������������������������������������13

The Almost Queen �����������������������������������������������������������������������16

The Animal Adoption Centre �������������������������������������������������������19

Upper Primary

Kill Me Now ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������24

Storm Front ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������26

The Sun and the Moon ����������������������������������������������������������������32

Lower Secondary

Neighbourhood ���������������������������������������������������������������������������36

The Becomming ���������������������������������������������������������������������������42

The Light We Cannot See ������������������������������������������������������������48

Upper Secondary

Mould �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������54

Ladybird���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������59

Beautiful ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������63

After Our Lives �����������������������������������������������������������������������������68

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LowerPrimary

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Tilly was a circus kid� She travelled around the world with her mum, a ribbon dancer in Mr Moustache’s Big Top Hat� Tilly’s mother’s show was an amazing and beautiful spectacle� The highlight was when she jumped

off a high platform and landed on a soft, smooth, blue mat�

Tilly was lonely� None of the other circus performers had kids� She would spend her days reading the magnificent Famous Five books, imagining that she was part of the team� Tilly would often tell her mum that she didn’t want to be a circus kid anymore� She wished to go to a normal school, with a normal teacher and eat from a normal lunch-box�

One day, Tilly’s mother was performing in the show with her rainbow ribbon� Tilly watched her from the top of the circus hat� Something went wrong� The ribbon hit the ground� Tilly’s mother hit the fence in front of the audience� Tilly yelled�

Tilly’s Mother was sent to hospital� She had broken her ankle badly� Tilly went with her and had to eat yucky hospital food! They had to stay for two weeks� It would be a long time before she could perform again� At the hospital one day, Tilly’s mother asked,

‘Do you want to live here in Melbourne forever?’

Tilly thought about this� She had missed the circus� The sweet smell of fluffy pink fairy floss� The excited smiles on children’s faces� The sound of the audience clapping, like heavy rainfall from the sky� Most of all, she had missed watching her Mum perform and seeing how happy it made her�

When Mum’s ankle was better, they went back to the Big Top Hat� In time, Mum went back to performing with her rainbow ribbon�

One day, Tilly was reading a Famous Five book when she heard a girl’s voice�

‘Excuse me, what are you reading?’

Her name was Georgina� Her Mum was a tightrope walker� She was a circus kid too�

– THE END –

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Rosebud was a fairy but she was not just an ordinary fairy she was the most beautiful fairy in Flower Cottage� With her long blonde hair, violet dress and amazing clear purple sparkly wings� She lived in a mushroom like all

of the other fairy’s, with white spots on the top, it also had an arched shaped door and some cute little windows� Rosebud was so proud of herself because everyone said that it looked the neatest of all, especially the garden which had a little blue water fountain, some gnomes also the finest violets in Flower Cottage� She liked to brush her hair, go shopping , be neat and have sleep overs with her friends�

One day an evil koala named Coo Coo flew over the cute flower cottage in the clouds on his throne built from bamboo� As he flew past, he did evil laughs as loud as a loin� He liked to make mischief and scare people�

Every one at Flower Cottage was scared of him and when ever someone spotted him they would freeze in shock or they would scream “Arrrr!” “Help!” The people would run around screaming like mad and that’s what made it easy for Coo Coo to get what he wanted� But not Rosebud, she just thought Coo Coo was just a nasty koala and sometimes she even tried to catch him�

Once Rosebud actually even caught Coo Coo, but he escaped before she could tell the Queen�

One night when you could not even hear a footstep in Flower Cottage, Coo Coo was planning to make some mischief�

First, the koala started to rifle through some roses to get to Rosebuds house and finally when Coo Coo was at the front door step he was covered in prickles so he pulled them all out� It really hurt and one of them was so sharp he howled like a wolf “oowwwwww!” When he finished taking out all of the prickles Coo Coo opened the door� It made a creaking sound “cccrreeeeeaakkk”� He tip toed into Rosebud’s bedroom and looked all through her cupboards and draws and found her wings under her bed� They were sparkly with a clear background and they were beautiful, but in Coo Coo’s opinion they were horrible� He could not stand sparkles�

Once Coo Coo had stopped dreaming and snapped out of it, he started to creep out of the bedroom, but just as the Koala was about to close the door he froze because he heard something� It was Rosebud, but luckily she didn’t wake up! So Coo Coo rushed out the of the house� When Coo Coo was just about too step onto the door step he stepped on the huge pile of thorns that he left behind�

He screamed again and heard Rosebud get out of bed� Coo Coo quickly pulled them out as fast as he could and climbed on to the roof� Rosebud opened the door to see if any one was there� Who could it be? she wondered� Rosebud

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poked her head out of the door and checked around� “BBBBrrrrrrrr” she muttered in a trembling voice because it was so cold, so she went back in side� “That was a close one”, Coo Coo whispered!

Then he realised that the back of Rosebuds house had no rosebushes and was closer to the castle� Coo Coo then looked at the time� “Oh NO!” “I’d better hurry”, he said to himself and he slid down the roof and landed on a soft patch of grass� He helped himself up and ran to the castle� At the castle he was looking for wands and pillows which were both found in the Polishing Fairy’s beds� Coo Coo entered the castle and it was very large and loud�

The koala knew which way to go� When he got to his destination, he grabbed all of the wands and pillows and then left the castle on his thrown�

In the morning the fairy’s woke up early because they did not have their pillows when the sun rose� The Queen woke and she looked out of the window� Something did not seem right�

“Yes”, she said, “The Polishing fairy have not started polishing�” So she went to their rooms and they were yelling “Help!” “Get me out of here!”, so the Queen unlocked all of the doors�

A little while later Rosebud came to the castle and they told each other about what had happened� They both had seen something in common� At both scenes there was bamboo� They looked around and saw a trail of bamboo leading out of the castle door� Rosebud and the Queen followed the trail and it led them right into a hole�

The hole looked like it went on for days� The Queen used her magic to create a boat and they continued to follow the trail�

Finally they reached a tropical island and found a little house made out if bamboo�

In the house they saw a koala� “Finally!” said the Queen� She knew who had stolen all of the items� Coo Coo had made mischief in the past�

When Coo Coo left the room they quickly grabbed what belonged to them� Just as they were about to leave the house, Coo Coo came into the room� “What are you doing!” He said�

But just as Coo Coo was running towards them, they slammed the door on him and sailed back to Flower Cottage and the castle�

– THE END –

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The

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Escape

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I can’t stand all this work! It’s too much!

I need to think of a way to escape!

I am Maya and I live with my horrible step mother and big fat step brother� My father was the best fisherman in the world� I remember when he won a prize for catching the biggest tuna in the world which paid for our mansion on the hill�

It has been 2 years since I last saw my father� There was a massive storm which destroyed half the village below and that was the last time we all saw my father� Ever since that day I have been left alone with my step family who makes me do everything around the house while they relax and eat like pigs� They keep me locked up at the top of the hill in our mansion�

I need to plan an escape� I started drawing up a plan on a big sheet of paper� I thought it was going to be a piece of cake� But it took hours! This was my plan� I could use a rope and tie it around my waist and slowly absail down the rocky cliff to the village below�

“Maya where is our dinner?” yelled my step mother�

I quickly ran down as cool as a cucumber to prepare dinner� I didn’t want them to be suscipious of my plans�

After dinner I went to bed early� I wanted to be well rested before my big escape� After everyone had gone to bed, I crept out of the house� It was the darkest night with no moon in sight� I decided to wait until dawn before climbing down the rocky mountain�

At the break of dawn I started my very long climb down� I finally reached the village after 2 hours� It has been so long since my last visit to the village� The last time my father took us for ice cream to celebrate my birthday� It felt like a whole new world seeing it again after soooooo long�

As I was enjoying the memories walking the streets� I saw my step mother and brother� I had to act quickly� I ran as fast as lighting round the corner to hide� What should I do now? Luckily I manage to lose them as they went the other direction�

Suddenly someone grabbed my arm� I turned around thinking I had been caught� But it was someone very familiar� I couldn’t believe my eyes� My long

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lost father was standing in front of me!!!! I wrapped my arms around him full of joy and he picked me up in a bear hug� I cried as I told him how my step mother had locked me up and made me a slave to the family�

My father moved us to a very distant land and we built a new life far away from my step mother and brother� I started a new amazing school and made new friends� And that’s the beginning of my fairy tale�

– THE END –

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MiddlePrimary

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My little brother was murdered on Monday�

But he came home on Tuesday�

My bedroom was cold� Cold and dark� I was wriggling so crazily it made me want to go even more� I was about to wee my pants� The embarressment might not be as bad as the walk up our long, dark hallway to the toilet� I gave in, threw my covers off and ran as fast as my legs could carry me� It felt soooo nice giving in, but once I let go, the tears began to flow as well� I missed him� Even if he wouldn’t have missed me� I finished up and poked my head out into the hallway� That’s where I saw it�

For a moment I was frozen� The shadowy figure strode into the living room� I let out a scream� I sprinted into my room� “What’s wrong?!” my Mum rushed into the room, face puffy from crying� “Thomas…I saw Thomas�” Mum tried to sound brave� She tried to look brave, too� “Sweetheart, I wish he could come back to us too� He’s gone forever�” She kissed me goodnight, turned on the hallway light and left the door ajar� But I noticed she didn’t look back� It was only a few minutes later that the hallway lights dimmed and went out�

A deeper darkness walked into the room� I held my breath so this time I didn’t scream� We both were frozen for a few moments, ghost and girl� Slowly very slowly I stood up, walked up to the curtains and let the moon light in� I tuned around� Thomas looked at me sadly� He beckoned me to go with him� I followed him up the hallway� It wasn’t so scary now the ghost had a name� Thomas drifted out through the front door� I opened the door quickly but quietly so I wouldn’t wake Mum� It was cold outside, but I didn’t grab a coat… I didn’t want to lose him�

The street was beautiful in the moonlight� A dark thrill welled up inside me, I was still scared but my curiosity was stronger�

He led me down a street and past the corner shop, through the ally down to the river� It was strange� In the moonlight he looked like a pale version of himself� But when we passed under trees he dissolved into darkness�

We stopped at the edge of the crime scene flood lights� Thomas, because he didn’t want to disappear, me, cause I didn’t want to get caught� Inside the ring of lights two detectives were talking…�”Unless we find the murder weapon we’re never gonna find the killer�” Said the older one� I looked at Thomas, but he was already making his way around the lights to the river� This time he didn’t stop at the edge, he waded in�

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“Seriously…?” I whispered� Thomas turned around� He gave me a look, then started walking in again� I sighed and followed him�

The water was freezing� My feet went numb� My teeth started to chatter� Thomas disappeared into the inky black water� I took a deep breath and plunged after� I wondered if this is what death felt like� Cold� Dark� And suddenly alone� He must have brought me here for a reason� I reached out and felt the slimy river bottom� I slid my hand along and found pain�

Something sharp lay in the slime� I got hold of it and kicked for the surface� I gasped for air and looked at what was in my hand� A knife with the letters T�D� engraved into the moonlit blade� Suddenly, flashlights beamed out from shore�

“Oy! Who is that? Don’t move!” the policeman called out “Naomi Turner! I found something!” I called back� “The boy’s sister? What are you doing out in the dark?”

“Finding answers�” I replied�

– THE END –

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T H E A L M O S T

Q U E E N

Olivia Be l l

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Dear current Queen Elizabeth the Second,

I declare that I am going to be taking over� So, you can have long break, relaxing around Big Ben� I promise I will be splendid at everything as the

new queen, Queen Olivia the First�

I want to take over because I think that I can do a better job� And it will be fun to be queen� And I’m young whilst you’re getting old, so I can be queen for a very long time�

When I am queen, I will offer you a place at the old people’s home� I’m sure you’ll make friends there, if the other people aren’t too wrinkly for you� There will be plenty of shiny metal walking frames to light up the place, and the textured walls will be painted daisy-yellow to make your heart shine with happiness� Floral perfume will mix with antiseptic spray� There will be lots of positive bucket-filling until you kick the bucket! I’m sure you’ll love it there�

There are four main reasons why I want to be queen� Firstly, I am extremely brave, so I can help with the guards� I’ve seen their scarlet coats with golden buttons lined up down the middle like soldiers on parade� Towering midnight black hats that remind me of furry cats, sit above their constantly serious faces� I’ll make them laugh, and when I’m bored I can pull funny faces and stick out my tongue� I could change their uniform too and that could make them smile� A fluffy pink coat with purple fascinator with red roses floating on the side would be perfect�

I’m so brave that I would personally be good at fighting mighty-tough old Donald Trump (with his hair like mashed potatoes) to become everyone’s hero� I will stop him from building walls between countries, and build pathways instead� (By the way, I like mashed potatoes, but even more with bangers!)� I am ready for wars because I win every round of hide-and-seek-chasey, and I have also played lazer tag before� But we won’t need those skills because I will negotiate brilliantly with other countries� I am actually just a teeny bit scared about going to bed at night, so to be brave I will need a torch to keep my room safe� I will command the guards politely, to look under my bed for slimy, grotty monsters, each with ten eyes as big as apples, because a new room can be frightening�

I’m hungry now that I’ve mentioned mashed potato� I’ll ask my mum for some for dinner, but when I am queen I’ll command the chef!

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Secondly, I have an enormous, gorgeous handbag with many things inside to help me� Perhaps you have the same thing, darling? It has the latest, most technologically advanced iPhone X to call my beautiful mummy� It also carries a delicate handkerchief to blow my petite nose, so I don’t get an utterly terrible cold� It has giant dog treats for my sleek greyhounds, not for stubby little corgis� It has a billion dollar gold credit card that never expires, and my favourite teddy to encourage me when I am glum� Don’t forget a freshly ironed pair of frilly, hot-pink knickers for emergencies, and a buttercup yellow rubber duck to squeeze on when nervous� There’s a packet of chewy gummies somewhere deep in there too� They are for sucking on only when bored, for example when listening to terribly long speeches�

Thirdly, I have plenty of awesome and amazing ideas for new rules for the country� My beloved face will be on both sides of coins and notes to make people giddy with joy� It is imperative that all children eat delicious candy, lollies and ice-cream and any other desserts they want because if that’s what they desire, they wont complain� And my favourite, no homework!! So sorry about that, obviously, I hate homework and school is so boring that I start falling asleep half way through the teacher explaining something� The children will definitely still need to be at school while I am having a break from it, being queen� But they wont be doing too much hard stuff, all they’ll be doing is playing in the playground and learning simple number facts�

Finally, I’ve been taking exhausting queen-word lessons and every time I’ve been practicing the same word “Darling!”� Emphasise the “Dah” part, my teacher says, to make it mag-nif-ique! So I can offer tea with queen-manners� And by the way, I’ve been practicing waving regally�

Thank you for considering my note�

From the new queen,

Olivia the First�

– THE END –

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T H EA N I M A L

A D O P T I O NC E N T R E

B Y P E N N Y A B B O T T

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Brmm! Went the little red sports car, Odette was on her way to the farm� She had just married a farmer named Bill� They met at a coffee shop and fell madly in love� Odette had long blonde luscious locks tided back with

a scarf around her head, she was wearing a skin tight dress and crimson lipstick and big pearl earrings� She worked as a makeup artist and designer in fact she designed the dress she was wearing� She was moving to Bill’s farm and had spent hours on Pinterest imagining her flash life in the country maybe like Queen Elizabeth at her country home� Her life was going to be very fancy she thought� When she arrived she saw Bill waving and holding hid cat Kelly� Bill was the opposite of Odette� He wore dirty clothes, brown boots, and a cap� When she arrived she gave Bill a big kiss with her plastic surgery lips� SMOOCH! It left a big red mark and since Odette was bad at staying still it looked like bill had been stabbed in the cheek! Bill spent the next 45 minutes unpacking her clothes and make-up� Odette settled in for the night and began dreaming about her new posh life�

Odette and Bill woke up happily and walked down to the kitchen� Bill made boiled eggs and toast� Odette sat happily on her iPhone X texting her friends� Bill brought the eggs to the table and Odette lifted her spoon and looked at the egg, she was shocked! “What� Is� That?” she asked in shock�

“what do you mean?” replied Bill

“it’s a WHITE egg!”

Odette was furious, Bill was confused� She demanded to have an explanation� “Egg shells are normally brown”� She said Bill explained that brown chooks laid brown eggs and that white chooks laid white eggs� Odette demanded that Bill get rid of all the white chooks on the farm� Bill felt torn and he also thought that Odette seemed a little crazy� Mabey they should have got to know each other a little bit more before getting married� Later that afternoon Bill was driving his rusty old ute in town and saw a big shed for sale and had an idea� He worked hard and after a few weeks it was done� It was…an Animal Adoption Centre� Bill couldn’t bear to kill his chooks and he thought someone else could love them as much as him� The Animal Adoption Centre would be a place for his lovely chooks to stay until other people wanted to come and buy them�

The next evening at dinner Odette and Bill were having roast pork and vegetables� Bill was talking about his vegetable garden� He said that he uses cow manure and then Odette jumped out of her chair, ran to the kitchen sink and spat out her food� “You’re telling me that the vegetables you just served

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me, were grown in poo! How could you do this to your beloved wife?! “I thought you loved me!?”

“What’s so wrong with manure?” replied Bill very confused�

“EVERTHING!’’ she replied� “Get rid of the cows!”

So bill did exactly what Odette said� He took his favourite cow Percy and the rest of the herd to the Animal Adoption Centre� He loved his animals and it broke his heart to see them go but after all he still loved his wife and knew she was adjusting to farm life� Days passed by with no problems and Bill thought Odette was starting to get used to farm life but little did he know Kelly was going to change that�

The next afternoon was a beautiful sunny day� Odette had just painted her nails bright pink and was drying them in the sun when Kelly brought Odette a welcome present (cats and dogs often bring ‘treats’ for people they like)� She strolled towards Odette with a fury lifeless treat flopping out our either side of her mouth� Odette couldn’t quite make out what it was because her fake eyelashes were too long� Kelly got closer and closer and finally dropped the present in Odette’s lap� It was a lovely fat juicy rat with wirey hair a thick tail and bulging eyes� Odette froze, she could not move� Her mouth fell open and she let out a little squeak� Then she leaped into the air and screamed like she had never screamed before� She was in the worst state of fashion she had ever been in her life� She had rat blood all over her white dress, rat hair stuck on her tacky nails and her own hair looked like it could have been the rat’s nest! She was going crazy! At that time Bill was in the bathroom but he heard her screaming, ran down the hallway and was terrified because he thought his love was hurt! Bill realised what had happened and knew a trip with Kelly to the adoption centre was coming up� Bill felt very lonely�

After many weeks the animal adoption centre was packed with animals from the farm that Odette did not like� Odette had a long hard think and confessed to Bill that she was sorry and was going to make more of an effort� As a celebration Bill and Odette decided to go to town for pizza� They ordered and Bill heard something he just couldn’t take� Odette said “I would like pineapple on my pizza”� Bill looked in shock� Odette was confused� “Nope, that’s it� I just can’t be with someone who would put fruit on their pizza� Pineapple, seriously, you’re one of those people! I can’t take this!”

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Bill decided Odette wasn’t meant for the farm after all� He packed up her things and sent her back to the city in her little red spots car� He took back all his animals that were left at the animal adoption centre and closed it for good while Odette drove to the nearest manicure place and was wondering how much extra they would charge her to remove rat hair from her nails�

– THE END –

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UpperPrimary

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Kill me now� Please, kill me now� Too long have I existed as a child’s mere play thing! I don’t know who I annoyed in a former life, but the gods have certainly supplied me with a heavy dose of poetic justice�

You see, I used to be a wanderer, exploring the world, never staying in one place long enough to call it home� But now I am encased within these plastic walls; cold and sterile as a hospital’s waiting room�

I don’t remember when the rigor mortis started to creep in, making my toes tingle, then migrating up the highway to my legs, but I do remember the horror when I woke up to see my fingers fused together, my hand formed in a hideous misshaped claw�

Panic still grips me by the throat when I remember the chilling sensation of ice cold fingers pulling me down, down, down, down to the ground� Gravity suffocating me, pulling the air from my lungs as the world rose up into a dizzying landscape- everyday objects becoming mountains and skyscrapers�

Yet there I lay, stiff as a board, cold as a corpse with a stupefied goofy grin painted on my face, masking the howling screams within�

Then the snotty-faced child beamed at me, its grubby little paws yanking me from the ground and stuffing me into the dark depths of a sandy, greasy pocket�

The next time I saw daylight, one billion questions flooded my mind; where was I? The whole world was hard and plastic, never moving, unchanged� The manic smiles of yellow, shiny cell-mates, gazing at me, each one petrified into a yearning, desperate stare� How could these people be the same size and shape as me?

Inside, my heart thumped rapidly, threatening to break through my plastic shell� I tried to approach the other figures but found I was immobile, a large green mound penetrating my feet to the ground�

And here I remain, one man in a vast LEGO army� Alone, depressed, ignored� Longing for human interaction but forever denied� How many of my fellow comrades are also conscious of their existence? I wonder if I’ll ever know�

How long does plastic last? Please, kill me now�

– THE END –

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STORMFRONT

BY RUBY BELL

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I watched the tea sloshing around in the mug, millimetres away from spilling over the edge� I stopped, waiting for it to steady� I took a slow, tentative step, careful to keep the mug even� I continued up the stairs, one foot in front of

the other, a tight-rope walker� I stopped midway, glancing out the wide window onto the beachfront� I could tell a thunderstorm was brewing out in the open ocean, shaped by the roaring winds� The icy water was a swirling combination of dark blue and grey foam, with streaks of sand coursing through it� Waves smashed the shoreline, spraying salty mist into the air� The shrubs and bushes were leaning hard to the right, belted by the rain and whipped by the wind� Shivering, I carefully sipped my boiling tea and climbed the remainder of the stairs to my temporary bedroom�

I placed the steaming mug on the rickety bedside table, and went to pull my book out of my backpack� The small house was quiet for once, so each wave crashing on the beach, each shock of thunder was amplified� I snuggled deep under the covers and exhaled� I leaned over to switch on the small lamp, and it cast a warm glow over the darkening room� The sun was beginning to set, though it was almost impossible to see over the waves throwing themselves around�

Although it might sound strange to some people, storms have always made me me feel calm� I’m always inside, protected from the cruel weather, able to watch from a distance� The steady tapping of the rain on the roof, the rustling of the wind in the trees easily lulls me to sleep� It was so peaceful in my room, a cosy shelter from the brutal storm, and I realised I was actually glad that mum dragged me here� Despite the bad weather and isolation, it’s so far my favourite winter holiday� Pyjamas all day, a backpack full of books, long walks on the cold sand, wind tousling my hair� But one small problem ruined the whole thing�

My dad hadn’t come� When we left home, it was quite abrupt� Mum told me and my two-year-old brother that she was taking us on a relaxing holiday for a week� It was about an hour away, and the exact location was a surprise, she said� We were both bubbling with excitement because it had been over a year since we had last been on holiday� We were already on the freeway when it first occurred to me that dad was still at work� I immediately asked mum if he was coming� Apparently, he had some ‘work business’ to catch up on, and he would come as soon as possible� I love everyone in my family equally, but my dad is really special to me� He’s always calm and has that effect on everyone around him� He can make anybody double over laughing, no matter the circumstance�

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Just sitting next to him seems to cure all my problems�

Each night for a week, I watched out the window for his car coming up the sandy drive� Each night I expected him more� I continuously nagged mum, and to my annoyance, she kept brushing it off� It was almost imperceptible, but I noticed her shoulders tense, her fists clench and her jaw tighten slightly, every time I mentioned it� I also asked if I could call him but she said no� She didn’t want me to disturb him while he was working� Of course, her reactions only made me more curious� What could be going on at his work that is this bad? Was it financial issues? Could it be something completely different? I realised my tea was almost cool, and took a drink� I’m only twelve, anyway� I’ll let the adults sort it out and talk to him when we get back�

My train of thought had wandered well away from the tracks� I picked up my third book of the week� Halfway through, chapter eighteen� I figured I could get to chapter twenty-two before mum makes me go to sleep� The sun had long since disappeared underwater, but no stars could be seen in the sky� A thick layer of clouds blocked any view, wind pushing the heavy, endless blanket across the sky� A tiny droplet trickled down the window, fogging up the view of the raging sea� I turned the pages of my book, sipping tea at intervals� I was hidden in my cavernous sanctuary of pillows and blankets�

The clock was ticking� It wouldn’t be long before the storm arrived on our doorstep� Lighting ravaged the sky, striking closer� Soon it was so dark I couldn’t see anything outside of my window, only shadows and outlines of large shapes� My mug was empty, as I had drained the last of my tea while it was still warm� I heard mum come in, her slippers padding against the floorboards� Her dressing gown was wrapped tightly against her, attempting to trap as much heat as possible�

“Bed time, sweetie,” she said� “You know, Hugo fell asleep straight away tonight� No trouble at all!”

I laughed�

“Seriously? That’s a first!” I answered� My four year old brother Hugo always takes hours to go to sleep� It drives us all crazy�

“Maybe it was the storm?” I suggested�

“Maybe,” she laughed� “Goodnight, Mia�”

– 29 –

“Night, mum� Love you!”

I switched off the lamp and the darkness enveloped me� I listened to the relaxing metallic clang of the first raindrops hitting the gutters and splashing onto the ground� I heard the wind blowing the leaves about, looking like the crazy crowd at footy games waving their arms about� Everything was quiet and warm under the covers, though� I missed dad, and couldn’t wait to see him the next day, to jump into one of his his strong hugs� I lay still, listening to the surges of rain� Thundering down for a few minutes, then easing off, then thundering down again� Just after my head hit the pillow, I heard a long crackle of thunder, a warning�

I knew it wasn’t morning when I woke� My throat was dry and I really needed a drink, probably because the heating had been on on all night� It was still so dark that I couldn’t see anything outside of my window� My watch read 11:06� The storm was still in full pelt� I could hear the waves smashing on the shoreline� I stumbled out of bed, careful not to hit the sharp corners of the bedside table in the dark� I didn’t want to turn any lights on upstairs, for fear that it would wake my little brother� And if that was the case, he’d never get back to sleep tonight� The tiled floor was freezing on my bare feet� I silently made my way downstairs to the kitchen�

I winced when I came to the bottom of the stairs� Bright yellow light was shining from the hallway leading to my mum’s bedroom� I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the light� I couldn’t open my eyes for about ten seconds� I blinked repeatedly, until my eyes adjusted� My mouth was already open to call mum’s name when I heard her talking in a hurried, semi-whisper� Thunder reverberated through me� Who could she be talking to so late at night? I crept across the corridor, my toes freezing on the tiles� Light was flooding in from under my mum’s door� I noticed it was slightly ajar� I was about five metres away when I stopped� Eavesdropping is wrong, I thought� I should go back to bed� But I knew I would never get back to sleep�

I couldn’t yet make out mum’s exact words, but I could feel (hear?) the panic, the stress, the worry in her voice� Curiosity got the better of me� I quickly glanced around the door frame� I only looked for half a second� But that was more than enough� My mother was barely recognisable� Her eyes were red and bloodshot� Her hair looked like it hadn’t ever been brushed� There were dark circles under her eyes� She was sitting on the edge of her bed, looking at the floor� She

– 30 –

clenched her phone tightly in one hand� It tore my heart to see her like this, and at the same time, lightening tore the sky apart�

I was so close to marching in there, so close to hanging up on whoever could do this to my mum when I heard his voice�

Dad�

It couldn’t be him� They haven’t ever fought like this before� I went silent� I had to know what this was about� I had to know that it wasn’t my fault�

“You can’t keep doing this, Matt! It happens again and again and I can’t put up with it any more�”

My mum was whispering into the phone, but she wasn’t quiet at all� I prayed that she didn’t wake Hugo�

“What do you mean? You can’t just run off with the kids to some ‘holiday house’ without telling me� I have no idea where my family is! They’re my kids, too!”

My dad’s voice shocked me so much that I almost sobbed out loud� I had never heard him raise his voice� I can’t believe mum didn’t tell dad where we had gone� Suddenly, the table flipped� I was furious at mum� My blood was boiling inside my veins� Outside, the rain was belting the ground unforgivingly� It took all the self control I had not to scream�

“I’m so sick of this! You know what? I’m done� I’m staying here� With the kids� Forever� There’s nothing you can do�”

“You can’t do that! When I find out where you are – ”

My mum hung up, ferociously slamming her finger on the screen� She put her head in her hands, wiped her eyes and looked up� At me� Standing in her doorway� Speechless� Tears flooding down my face�

Silence�

The sky flickered white with electricity� I counted� One, two three� Mum was absolutely shocked� Four, five� We both stared at each other� Six, seven� Thunder rumbled ominously across the beach�

“Mia, sweetheart, daddy and I just – we’ll work it out�”

“No, mum,” I growled� I was surprised at my own voice� It shook with red hot anger�

– 31 –

“I don’t want to hear more lies� I’ve had enough of this little holiday�” My voice was quiet, low, menacing� I had to be angry, otherwise I would fly into a storm of tears� My mum didn’t answer� She wouldn’t make eye contact�

“I think I’ll go find dad�”

I knew that would hurt� I didn’t look at her� I just grabbed her phone and flung myself into the merciless storm�

And she didn’t do anything to stop me�

– THE END –

– 32 –

T H E S U N

A N D M O O N

BY NATHANAEL

ONG

– 33 –

Matt had just completed his medical course at university� He was packing his suitcase full of clothes and shoes� On his bed lay travel brochures of European and South-East Asian countries� Matt was hopeful, and

looking forward to his trip� He was going to experience unfamiliar environments and cultures, but he didn’t mind because he had an outgoing personality, and was often nicknamed Sun by his family�

On the other side of the world lived a boy, named Carl� Carl’s family was very poor, he had to study under a street lamp at night� The staff at the fast food joint nearby nicknamed him Moon as he worked vigorously under the moonlight� He lived in a decrepit abode in a slum, therefore his home had no electricity� One day, as Carl was walking home from school, he noticed a bright yellow poster on the weather worn wall of a building�

As Matt got out of the airport, the bright sunlight shone intensely� There were rows of cars and little stalls on the side of the road selling fruits and vegetables� The wind blew, and dust, and rubbish danced in the air and eventually floated gracefully down to the dry amber road� A single empty bottle tumbled across the street finally bumping into the yellow curb, where it came to a halt� The sound of sizzling chicken was overlapped with cars honking, and people shouting� Little nuns dressed in pink and red robes walked dutifully as a group across the street, towards the temple for their daily lessons� Matt beamed at the organised chaos before him�

When Carl was born, he had a skin disease� Carl’s parents couldn’t afford the skin treatment medicine� After a while, patches began to develop on his skin� Coincidently, they looked like the craters on the moon�

“Come on Moon, it is time� Get ready, let’s go,” said Carl’s dad�

Carl picked up a shirt off his bed� Even though it was shabby, it was his best� Carl’s dad put on his taped up thongs� This too was his best footwear� Together they headed towards the community hall where a queue was already forming�

Matt pulled on his white coat, and walked into the hall�

“Hello, what’s your name?”

“My name is Moon,”

“Fancy that, my name is Sun,”

“Open your mouth please,” asked Matt�

– 34 –

He stuck a mouth mirror inside Carl’s mouth, and evaluated his teeth development� Matt removed the mouth mirror from inside Carl’s mouth, and said,

“Looking good!”

Matt proceeded to evaluate Carl’s eyesight, ears, breathing, skin, height and weight�

His dad smiled comfortingly knowing that one year has passed, and Carl’s health was on track, thanks to these yearly charity clinics and medical volunteers�

Carl’s dad walked closer� Matt heard a flopping sound on the floor, he looked to where it was coming from� He noticed Carl’s dad only had taped up thongs� He paused for a minute, smiled, and removed his own boots� He handed them to Carl’s dad� Puzzled, Carl’s dad accepted them politely and gratefully�

“Will we see you again next year, Sun?”

“Of course! When moon is up, it does not mean that the sun is gone, right? It will return again�”

Carl and his dad walked home� The decrepit slum around him faded, and turned into a white clinic with the whizzing of tooth cleaners in the background, as he dreamt about his future� The boots were worn but as far as Carl’s dad was concerned, they were perfect�

Matt’s feet were left bare for the rest of the day but he walked back to his motel, heart full�

– THE END –

– 35 –

LowerSecondary

– 36 –

Neighbourhood

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– 37 –

It was nearly dawn� The moon was the lucid white of pearls, illuminating the blurred tenebrosity�

The neighbourhood slumbered peacefully, a soft breeze lulling their minds� Chests rose and fall, in time with the thumping of hearts and the chirping of crickets� Mothers hugged babies to their chests, protecting the tiny, mewling bundles even in sleep� Workers dozed blissfully, relieved of their daily stress� All were grateful for their safe homes and soft beds�

Syrupy sunlight emerged, and families started to stir� Umar, a young boy of six, was the first to wake� He clambered frantically out of his bedding, and climbed down to his mother� Excitement simmering in his body, he prodded her, urging her to awaken� She groaned, before reluctantly rousing herself� At the sight of her eager son’s face, a smile played on her lips� Tenderly, she told Umar she would start making breakfast� He was delighted�

Soon, Umar and his mother were sharing a meal of fresh eggs and fruit salad� Umar inhaled the meal as if he had never eaten before, and his mother laughed� She knew he was desperate to explore outside� Raising an eyebrow at him, Umar blushed and nibbled a mango skin�

“You can play now, Umar,” she told him after swallowing her egg, “but don’t wander too far� You don’t want the Bad Men to catch you�”

Umar laughed� The Bad Men weren’t real - everyone knew that�

It was a myth passed down from older generations, and from other parts of the world, designed to discipline little children� The story went that if a soul strayed too far from the neighbourhood, they would find Bad Men, capturing little children and taking them away�

“Yes, mama,” he giggled, “I’ll look out for Bad Men�”

With an affectionate stroke of Umar’s soft ginger hair, she cleared away the breakfast things� He thanked her, and hurried out of the house into the open�

Today, Umar felt a tickling desire for adventure - he yearned to explore the far side of the neighbourhood�

His elephantine curiosity overflowed his toothpick-sized body� It overwhelmed him, and after a second’s hesitation, he gave in to it, setting off on his journey and grinning with an infusion of apprehension and thrill� He smiled at the neighbours he passed� The loveable grandmother Puan was eating a dish of

– 38 –

berries and honey� The admirable Hsing Hsing was patrolling his property� Umar knew his neighbours well, and they gave him support�

Minutes passed� The sun danced higher in the sky, and Umar travelled onward� The neighbours he passed changed from friends to acquaintances to strangers�

Soon, he was very much alone�

The landscape around him was now foreign; the ground was dusty and the homes were tall and bleak� He had made it to the neighbourhood’s far side, but it was hardly the adventure Umar had hoped for� It was unfamiliar and forbidding, bereft of his anticipated thrill� A sick feeling started in his throat�

He remembered his mother urging him not to stray far, and now feelings of defencelessness superseded all excitement� He journeyed on - slower, now, with his arms close to his chest and his head swivelling in all directions�

Suddenly, it happened�

A rough, coarse, roaring rumble erupted, piercing the silence� Umar stood, his feet rooted to the ground� His heart was iced with fright� He scratched his nose impulsively�

There it was again�

It thundered like the roar of a furious tiger, lashing and seething with wrath� Umar whimpered and bolted behind a nearby tree trunk� The sound grew louder, as if chasing him� He covered his ears, but the noise still shook his insides�

His eyes widened� A colossal vehicle, the size of a boulder, was charging through the neighbourhood� It was unlike anything Umar had ever seen� It emitted a foul, spluttering gas and was twice the size of a tiger� It smashed its way through the district, trampling the delicate vegetation�

Umar shrunk back into the folds of the tree, his carrot-coloured hair standing up on end� His jaw trembled, and he yearned to be back in his mother’s soft arms� The vehicle was coming� It was going to hurt him� It was going to crush him flat� It was going to…

The vehicle stopped dead in its tracks�

Two shadowy figures emerged from it� One was tall and dark, the other stocky and fair�

They engaged in conversation, but Umar couldn’t understand� They spoke a

– 39 –

foreign tongue� He could tell, however, that they seemed to be pleased� Excited, almost� Excited for something very terrible that they were about to do�

Umar’s face whitened� He suddenly realised what this meant�

This must be the Bad Men�

Umar’s heart rose into his throat� He had never thought… the rumours, the stories… they were meant to be fantasies� Paranoid myths that had been passed around, from faraway neighbourhoods� Yet here they were�

Umar’s fear was thick, churning like acid in his stomach�

The two Bad Men were now hauling equipment out of their vehicle� Umar watched, his skin slippery, as they pulled out torture devices� They were colossal, sharp, gleaming blades that whirred dramatically on the press of a button�

The Bad Men smiled at the weapons, as if they were admirable artefacts from a museum�

Umar shuddered� Carefully, he climbed up the tree, to get a better view�

The stocky man was now carrying his weapon towards a home not far from Umar’s post� Inside it was a young mother, feeding an infant in her arms� He called discretely to them, trying to warn them�

“Over here!” he called� “Save yourselves� Bad men are coming�”

The mother swivelled her head and looked confusedly at Umar� She murmured an ignorant reply, turning her attention back to her child�

There was nothing Umar could do� He sat, traumatised, as he watched the Bad Man brandish his silver weapon� The Man clicked the button, and it began to whir� Slowly, he inserted the weapon into the base of the home� It sliced through like butter� Umar closed his eyes; he didn’t dare look�

Suddenly, Umar heard a screech� A slow, crunching splinter of wood� A deep, howling scream�

When Umar opened his eyes, the home was a splintered mess� The mother was lifeless on the floor� The baby was caught in the Bad Man’s cage, hauled in the truck, and driven away - towards Umar’s home�

Umar let out a muffled squeal� They were going to attack his mother!

All thought in his mind was superseded by adrenaline� With unbelievable pace,

– 40 –

the child darted his way across the landscape� Sweat blossomed and lubricated his skin� His feet were numb and calloused, and his shoulders ached with the effort� Every few minutes, the vehicle trailed off into the distance, and Umar’s heart plunged� However he would quicken his pace and soon glimpse the edge of the rusty trailer� Bright-eyed, he would run faster�

The wind stung his eyes and soil gathered underneath his nails�

He was nearly there� He was nearly there� He was nearly…

Umar collapsed onto the floor� His home was only a few metres away, but his body had become limp� Black spots started to obscure his vision� Moaning with agony, he watched the Bad Men brandish their weapons and destroy of Puan and Hsing Hsing� All of Umar’s happiness was destroyed with it�

He exhaled gently and let his eyelids start to close�

‘The Bad Men are going to chop another one down now,” he thought to himself, “and I won’t be able to stop them� Look, there they go…wait, that’s my home!’

“Mum!” Umar sprang to his feet, his legs like jelly� He scrambled into his home, onto the top storey, and collapsed into his mother’s arms�

“What is it? Umar, speak to me!”

The boy was sobbing and shuddering with shock�

“B-bad men� We have to leave�”

“Bad men?” his mother said, incredulous� “What do you mean?”

“They’re coming! They’ve taken Puan�� Hsing Hsing… they… they’ll take you…”

Umar heard the splintering of wood beneath him�

It was too late�

“Quick, mama, climb!” Umar sobbed, gesturing towards a the branch of a nearby tree, poking into their home� He clambered onto it, desperate, and started to pull his mother up too� Their hands grasped tightly, sweaty and tearful�

She was too heavy� He could not lift her�

“Thank you for trying, Umar,” she whispered, “you are a brave boy� One day we will defeat those very Bad Men�”

– 41 –

The floor beneath her started to wobble� There was a whir� There was a, crunch� It swayed, groaned, and crashed to the floor� There was a striking, sickening scream�

Umar’s emotions had been drained by shock� He could only think of how strange his mother’s body looked down there, with long limbs and orange hair�

He looked left� He looked right� Trees - and their resident families - were being destroyed everywhere� The Bad Men had won�

Umar stared at the debris that had invaded the neighbourhood� Taking a shaky breath, he remembered the beautiful forest that once was there�

For all he knew, he might soon be the last orangutang left�

– THE END –

– 42 –

THEBECOMINGB Y  A D A M  L A M B E R T

– 43 –

“If you go down to the woods today . . .”

- Anne Murray

A COLD BREEZE blew in through the open window, its frozen teeth biting into his skin; bringing with it the wet, earthy scent of the nearby forest� It was getting late and Jack had been thinking of heading back home

for awhile� Though, surely one more beer couldn’t hurt� Jack and a small group stood around old Bill Smithers and listened sceptically as he spoke in a convicted tone about conspiracies and alien abductions� Jack knew that everything that came out of that greying man’s dry lips was a load of balderdash, but he had no friends here at the bar - and didn’t plan to make any - so he observed the conversation with a desire to be entertained by the rubbish that was discussed�

Except, as the topics changed, and Jack prepared to call it a night, Bill suddenly paused� He looked up directly into Jack’s eyes and said in his gruff, heavily accented voice,

“‘Ay, Stratford,”

“Yeah?” he responded in a mild state of confusion� Jack didn’t think that he knew he was even here, for he hadn’t looked at him all night as he stood near his table, sipping his beverage�

“You ever, ya’ know, seen anything - out there in them woods?”

For his whole three years out in the woods, chopping down trees for the village in exchange for money, he hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary� Why would he have? Overcast Forest was a lovely town, far away from the loud trucks and smoking factories of the city; isolated and comfortable, surrounded by dense woodland� It felt nice - and it was nice to Jack�

“What? Like one of your so-called “Bigfoots”?” he responded hotly, his short temper flaring� This loony was as ill-informed as a plank of wood and he wasn’t going to waste Jack’s time� He had to work early tomorrow and didn’t want to engage in conversation, as late as it already was�

“No � � � No, lad - far worse than tha’ � � �” It began to feel as though his brown eyes were staring into Jack’s soul�

“What then?” he sighed, unamused with this childish discussion among grown men�

– 44 –

“The Skinwalker,” Bill whispered� At the mention of that word, a chill crept down Jack’s spine� Outside the wind screamed like a maniacal ghost and the room seemed to grow colder� He’d never heard that word before in his life but knew that it couldn’t mean anything good� Jack’s anger was lost due to shock� He needed to get home� It sounded as though the heavens above were about to open up soon�

“No, I � � � need to go sorry,” he replied lamely� Bill continued as though Jack hadn’t spoken�

“I’ve seen it! In them woods,” He glanced among his gathering with wide eyes� His foul-smelling breath making Jack pull away from him� “It roams the Four Corners of America in the shape of different animals� When I first laid eyes upon the damned thing years ago, it was in the form of a wolf and ‘ad a deeply evil presence� It looked at me with ‘em dark, red-rimmed eyes and I knew that this ain’t no ordinary wolf� I knew I’d seen something supernatural tha’ day�

“Yeah, I don’t care -”

“The Navajo elders of this area say tha’ it’s a malevolent witch and tha’ thousands of years ago it cursed these very woods ‘ere� Its desire spellbound to the land: whoever dies in the forest shall remain there - forever�” His last word hung in the air�

“Shut up old man,” Jack said, his anger renewed� He pushed his empty beer glass to the bartender and shoved past Bill� Why was I letting that crazy old man into my head? Why was I getting so creeped out, when I knew that the creature wasn’t even real? Jack thought� Was it?

After he got home, dripping wet from the sudden downpour, he changed into his nightwear and walked the area of his house, switching off lights and putting last night’s dishes into the sink� As he walked back up to his room, Jack stopped to pull the blinds down on the big window in the study� It displayed a decent view of the forest, which was now dark and shadowy as it was just after midnight� Lightning flashed violently above the tall branches, illuminating certain parts of

– 45 –

the woods and momentarily streaking the inky black night sky with a thin fork of electricity every so often; the deep rumbling of the black clouds accompanying it� Jack suddenly got a sharp headache, as a wave of uneasiness washed over him� After another strike of lightning, he saw something� It was standing on the outskirts of the forest, not five meters away� Flash! He squinted in an attempt to see it better� It was roughly above his knee in height and stood confidently on four legs� Another flash� It looked directly at Jack with its black eyes, rimmed with glowing red hoops� The wolf’s thick fur was as dark as the clouds� Jack flew upstairs and locked his door� He knew that it could have been any sort of wolf, but it just didn’t seem � � � normal�

‘It roams the Four Corners of America in the shape of different animals,’ Bill’s words spun around in his head� It was surely not the “Navajo Witch” that Jack had seen outside his window - that was made up � � � but then again, that was no ordinary wolf�

He slid into bed, folding the crisp sheets over his cold body� Jack switched off his lamp and closed his eyes, darkness filling his vision as he waited for the inevitable, sleep�

He woke the next morning, shattered fragments of twisted dreams fading from his memory� After getting changed into his red farmer’s shirt and blue overalls, he grabbed his trusty axe and headed out the back door� As he walked across the damp lawn, Jack remembered where that wolf had stood and, quite suddenly, had the same headache as the night before� He found the familiar dirt path, walking along it into the tall, thick trees that stood like giants overhead� Overcast Forest was a safe place, surely� Nothing bad had happened there� Nothing bad apart from the fact that half a dozen or so people who had ventured into these woods - and not come back out, their bodies were never found�

Did they fall victim to the Skinwalker’s curse? Jack ruminated, but immediately fought away the thought� He walked for a while until he found a small, though adequate tree that would do well for the fire that night� Father had wanted to make a large bonfire to celebrate Jack’s 18th birthday� After chopping down the

– 46 –

tree and dragging it onto the path, Jack walked down through the thick bush, in search of another good tree, figuring some better trees may be found deeper in the woods� Soon, he came across a thin, black stream that streaked through the trees like a dark snake� Jack trudged across the dirt bank and listened to the swish of the leaves and the rush of the stream� Jack began to be lost in thought, as if the atmosphere around him soothed him enough to make his mind go numb�

He only stopped walking when all of a sudden, he heard a loud, shrill scream that chilled him to his core� It was as obnoxious and deafening as a fire alarm and stopped as suddenly as it had begun� He stood upon a soft part of the dirt bank and looked around�

“What in the seven hells � � �” He was curious as to exactly what kind of animal could possibly conjure a scream like that� Suddenly, the soft ground he stood upon opened wide like a mouth, as if the Earth wanted ravenously to devour him� His legs slipped inside the moist ground but no more of him was able to for his waist could not fit through the hole� He kicked and trashed and twisted his hips in hope of escape, but this only made the gap wider� Jack Stratford fell down into the darkness of the earth� The hole he had been stuck in let out into a some-what wider area with a hard floor� Jack hit it as the breath was pushed out of his lungs� After a while, he stood up, brushing the dirt off of him� Jack looked up and saw the opening of the mouth high above him, a pathetic shard of light piercing the darkness of this dirt cavern� Jack knew there was no escape� No one would find him� He leaned back against the side of the cavern, the rich smell of fresh soil and wet mud invading his nostrils as tears of despair slid down his cheeks� All of a sudden, the ground began to tremble as the wall behind him moved and shifted and pulsed, eventually breaking open to admit brown tree roots to shoot through� They grasped and grabbed onto anything in their way� Three roots pinned Jack’s right arm to the wall and more grasped strongly to his struggling body� They moved with the speed and randomness of a live wire� Jack cried out in utter horror as the hole up above began to close over, the dirt moving and climbing upon itself unnaturally to seal the gap shut� More roots bound him to the wall, seemingly coming from everywhere� Jack was unable to move anymore; heavy roots groped his whole body� A thick root tightened itself around Jack’s throat, cutting his voice off mid-scream and turning his face purple� Dirt began to pour in from the walls, like a damn might if it had just ruptured, and closed over his feet, his legs, his waist� It was like sand falling

– 47 –

down through an hourglass - with Jack trapped at the bottom� Just as the dirt reached his chest, Jack looked over to the back of the cavern, and something stared back at him� The familiar two glowing red rings and the outline of a wolf’s face� He heard a sinister cackle and knew that what had cursed this forest was truly real� Eventually, the whole cavern filled with dirt� He tried to cry out but was unable to and regretted opening his mouth, for dirt flooded into it making him choke� The soil kept coming and coming, sliding into his ears, forcing him to close his dirt caked eyes; until not a single bit of space was left� The ground had swallowed him up� It was as if Jack and the cavern had never been there at all�

Death willingly claimed Jack Stratford as the last breath of life he owned slipped through his lips and his soul left his body� Though, strangely, something was holding his soul back from leaving this realm� He didn’t quite know what it was� He felt as though he was supernaturally bound to the ground� In fact, he began to change appearance entirely� Jack’s blood became sap; his flesh turned into dry bark; his limbs grew into thick branches; his bones changed into wood and his red hair pushed out into autumn coloured leaves� His thin form stood tall among the other trees� For eternity, his bark peels and his wood rots; his leaves fall off and regrow� He tries to speak, but all that would meet the ear would be a whisper of crying wind through the woods�

This is what he has become - and this is what he will be always� Jack will pay his penance to Mother Nature forever� His skin-clad body is long deceased and decomposed beneath the ground, yet his soul shall never depart to the afterlife� He is alive, though not at all human� He is one with the Earth�

– THE END –

– 48 –

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B R O O K E C O S T A N T I N O

– 49 –

Left, right, left, right� One foot in front of the other, there was no tiled path, I walked where bush was sparse, where people had walked before� My toes curling in the dirt, and hanging branches getting caught in my hair� My only

light was a candle, small in my hand, squashed like a golf ball and covered with a brown hue from years of use, held in front of my face� The flame moved softly, sheltered by my cupped fingers� As long as it was lit, I was safe�

I keep my head down and watch my feet� Left, right, left, right� My feet always follow the same pattern, no matter the speed� It was constant; something I was able to control� Left, right, left, right� I wasn’t sure of much these days, but this was something I was�

Milky wax flowed onto my blistered palms, and I knew I would have to stop soon, to preserve the candle� I stepped over a decaying log, keeping my head low, and sped up my steps� The flame sputtered at the increase of pace, before stilling once again�

The dirt underfoot changed to gravel and I came to a slow halt, to not disrupt the wick of the candle again� I tilted my head up slowly, keeping alert for anything hidden in the darkness but was instead faced with the ruins of a building� I squinted my eyes and looked past the wreck and made out the shape of a derelict town� Some of the tension leaked out of my shoulders as I exhaled� They’ve already been here; They won’t come again.

In this town, I was the only beating heart� Walls that surrounded me may have once been home to families, but now were only unfamiliar mazes to all who wandered� This place was no longer a town, just a cluster of empty buildings, roads laid for people who would never walk them, and doors unlocked only for the unwelcome�

My eyes drifted from house to house lining the street� Questions I had no answer to came to the forefront of my mind� Was anyone here still alive? Or did They kill them all? Or had the people run? Like me? My foot caught and I fell forward, landing hard on my shoulder, protecting the candle�

I twisted and sat up, blinking my eyes to adjust to the darkness and shape the figure in the gloom� A person, no, not a person, a corpse� It was almost devoid of skin and encased by burrowing insects� I turned away and felt my stomach heave, nostrils filling with the smell of rotting flesh� Without eye-lids, milky blue eyes stared into the frozen sky while a lipless mouth hung open in a scream�

I scrambled to my feet and ran, letting my feet lead me anywhere, just away from the rotting body� I realised I had stopped running and came to in front of a small house�

– 50 –

The spirit of the home had rescued itself by hiding in cracks, retreating into the walls and floor, away from the dust� It stayed there, with memories of laughter, of hugs, and smiles, that once coloured this house and made it a home� It reminded me of my house�

I tore my eyes from the building, and lowered my head again, walking to the side steps� I grabbed the banister and pulled myself up the stairs to the front door� The door was scratched and dented with chipped brown varnish and a brass knob, dulled with age, and grimy from fingerprints�

I brought my left hand close to my chest and uncurled my palms from around the candle� I grabbed the doorknob and twisted, pushing the door open into a dark hallway� I tried the lights, nothing� Typical�

My bare feet connected with something damp on the floor and I looked down, brushing my toes over a patch of water� I followed the trail of water with my eyes to the second door on the right of the hallway and heard the sound of running water� I moved slowly, back pressed against the wall and curled my fingers around the door frame� My neck craned and my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room and I searched it for the source of water� I spotted a faucet in the corner, running unbidden into an overflowing sink�

My breathing evening out, I walked into the room and reached a shaking hand, twisting the taps, halting the flow of water� I carefully laid the candle upon the bench, and retracted my hands from the wax, submerging them into the sink� The cold water washed over my blistered limbs, scrubbing the wax from my nails and the folds in my palm�

I dried my hands on a dishtowel and brought them to my face� My hands were trembling, my lack of sleep was a strain on my body, but I had ignored the urge to rest until now� I slammed my hands onto the counter to prevent them from shaking, but my elbows locked, and my upper body collapsed onto the bench�

I heard the sound of breaking glass, and china crashed from the cabinets above the sink to the floor� I squeezed my eyes shut as a million small knives embed themselves into my skin, when I finally allowed my eyelids to flutter open, I saw the ground covered with shards of glass mixed with the ever-growing stain of red� Bile rose in my throat and tears leaked out of my eyes, I want to go home.

Sobs racked my chest, and my body shivered� The silence was suddenly too loud and all the emotions I had been repressing were finally released on the kitchen floor of a house I didn’t own; in a town I didn’t know�

– 51 –

My tears finally subsided enough that I could sit down, but the lump in my throat never disappeared� I brushed my bronze bangs out of my face and watched raindrops splatter across the kitchen window� Normally, it would have bothered me that the drops were obscuring my view of what was going on outside� But this time it was different� This time the drops brought a memory to the forefront of my mind� My family.

I hadn’t thought about them in so long, I hadn’t thought about anything, really, as I travelled� I just kept my head low and my candle burning, but I remember� Through the swirl of memories lining up in my brain came my father’s voice, teasing and light, and my mother’s boisterous declarations� I see my younger brother come bouncing around the corner to laugh at me for falling for another one of his elaborate jokes�

I haven’t had time to grieve for them, there is a part of me that has been purposefully holding the memory back, and although I dug their graves myself, I still don’t accept they are really gone� Their memory boils emotions in my chest, the love, the desire, the grief, and rage� They had done this, They had taken my family from me�

I used to be just a teenager, a girl, stressing about exams, and my part-time job, but I always had the support of family to fall back on� My family was eccentric, but it worked� Dad was a florist, and my mum was a lawyer, careful fingers, and careful words�

I had a younger brother as well, and he was a trouble magnet� Attracting disaster wherever he went, his crooked smile was as common as seeing my dad in a garden, or the spark in my mum’s eyes during a big case� I would always ruffle his dusty brown hair, and he would reach his arms to my hair attempting to ruffle my own�

My fist connected with the ground as the happy memories faded to give way to the dark crevices in my mind� I remember the garden in front of my house destroyed, the swirl of colours and spirit had been muted� I remember my footsteps as I ran into the house, left, right, left, right, I remember my parents mutilated bodies thrown carelessly across the hallway, cuts covering every inch of skin, and their veins coloured black�

I remember a scream; it bypassed my logical thinking and went straight to my emotional response because that was my baby brother� I remember it being high pitched and raw and running before I even knew why�

– 52 –

I remember a darkness wrapped around my brother, dragging his limbs back and leaving deep cuts in his skin, and I remember his eyes meeting mine, blue clouded with terror and it was wrong because my younger brother shouldn’t be scared� He should be laughing playing with his friends, whistling a tune from one of his stupid cartoons he would always play on repeat�

I ran at the shadow and my fist connected with its form, pressing it with attacks, until it let go of my brother� I remember hearing a chuckle from under their cloak, and I remember my limbs freezing, my body shivering in terror at the foreign sound� I remember the shadow striking and my hands coming up in a useless defence only to stand stock still, waiting for something that never came�

I remember my brothers broken body and a shard of darkness impaled through his lithe chest� I hesitated. I hesitated. I hesitated. I hesitated. They let go of my brother and advanced towards me, sheathing Their weapon�

At that moment I don’t remember�

My body had gone numb and my brain had switched off, but my instincts reared up and reached behind me, to a candle sitting on the mantlepiece below our television and brought the flame in front of my face and the shadow dispersed�

I remember the dimensions, three holes, six foot deep� I remember burying my family, leaving a candle on each of their graves to protect from Them�

Now my hands dug into the carpet, my arms searing from the glass shards and I transferred my weight from my knees into a ball, curling my arms around my legs, and gripping my knees� I had no tears left to cry�

Left, right, left, right, the sound of slow footsteps echoed through the house� The person coming up those stairs didn’t need to sneak, didn’t need to be quiet, and unlike all the times before, when They had found me, I didn’t run� I relaxed my body and closed my eyes as a soft wind blew into the room�

The light that had been searing behind my eyes from the small candle on the table was extinguished, and although the flame went out, I had never felt safer� The footsteps were closer now, and the darkness finally pressed in on me�

And the next time I opened my eyes, my world was bathed in light�

– THE END –

– 53 –

UPPERSecondary

– 54 –

MOULDG A B R I E L M E R G A

– 55 –

The smooth ceramic tiles were completely stained by the mould� No matter how hard she scrubbed, she could never seem to get rid of it� She would wait a few days, and then it would be back; small ringed blemishes,

like a faded watercolour, would appear at the corners of the tiles� And then they would fester, strengthening in colour and malignancy, until not even the chemical citrus smell of cleaner could hide its putrid rot�

Kate scrubbed nonetheless� It would not do for the house to appear tainted, even if it was� Under the fluorescent light of the bathroom every blemish was magnified; the light stripped away all subterfuge� Kate suspected that the mould was caused by rotting in the basement or the foundations, which was why she could never conquer it�

She sighed with completion as she finally succeeded in diluting a cluster which had her working for the greater part of an hour, and she wiped at her damp forehead with the back of her gloved hand, before settling back on her haunches to observe her work� The tile was now grey, rather than white, but at least it wasn’t black; it would have to do� She stood up from her crouch and surveyed the next clump of mould� This clump had been with her for a while; she could tell by its shape� Mould doesn’t take the same shape each time, Mark told her, but this one did� Her insistent scrubbing at the mould had even left soft indentations in the tile, leaving an outline� Looking at it, it appeared to be a stencil of a chubby human baby, and every time the mould grew back, it filled in the outline, gradually thickening until its shape was unmistakeable� It had been appearing in the bathroom ever since they had moved in�

Nonetheless, Kate bent down with her cloth and cleaner and scraped away at it again� Mark didn’t like seeing it, but didn’t do anything about it, she grumbled to herself� The fumes of the mould killer made her head feel heavy, stinging her eyes and clutching at her stomach, but while the window was open, she kept the door closed as a barrier to those beyond it� Protecting them from the fumes, she thought to herself� Not just because she was tired because Tom was teething and up all night, biting furiously on his teething ring, as he looked up at her with baleful eyes� Not just because she didn’t want to see Sandra’s hungry little clambering for the attentions of her father, who was blind to anything but the beer and the television� She followed him like a shadow, but every time Kate tried to pull her into an embrace, she shrugged away, her little freckled face pinched and resentful� And not because she was afraid of her eldest, of Joel’s cool eyes� The way he just watched with the ugly smirk, the twist to his

– 56 –

lips, something missing, such a vacant gaze in a face with cheeks still baby soft�

Every now and then her eyes drifted to the bathroom window and the filmy, yellowed curtain that danced in the breeze� The house was an elderly weatherboard box sitting on a hill in Newnham, Tasmania� Even the backyard was on an angle, and the overgrown green grass tangled with discarded children’s shoes, a tricycle missing a wheel, a one-eyed plush rabbit gradually disintegrating through the rain and the frost of the Tasmanian winter� Her eyes skimmed it all and soared up into the low sky, the generous grey clouds almost kissing the earth� It didn’t make Kate feel any less lonely, but somehow, losing herself in the ether helped her to leave the mould, the whining children, the measuring gaze of her husband, all behind�

As she approached the final colony, which she had been resolutely avoiding in hope that it would disappear, its sheer size provoked a stab of frustration� She had asked Mark a few months ago to call someone in to try and fix the mould, and wouldn’t be able to ask him about it again for a few months more, until he forgot� He got angry when she forgot what she was�

Every time she asked she got the same response, but last time she thought it would be different� She waited until he was softened by a few beers and a winning streak by his team, and then curled up to him as he rested his arm on her appreciatively� She purred softly, knowing he appreciated it, hating herself as she was doing it, but knowing it was the only way she could provoke his attention outwards� But when she asked, she was dismissed� He didn’t even look at her face as he rejected her, waving a hand as he said You’ve got it babe, and then when he considered her presence again, Get us another beer, would you love? In some parts, it was true— she could clean what was exposed� But the source of the mould was relentless, and she could not treat it without Mark giving her the money�

There was money� Mark worked as an Environmental Protection Assessor for one of the largest salmon fisheries in the world� There was a picture of him at work on the fridge� Smiling at the camera in his high-visibility vest and clutching a clipboard, he looked like an advertisement for the vocation� She knew he turned a blind eye when water pollution levels in the river spiked� He was from the mainland, had moved down to Launceston with his parents when he was fifteen� It was not his river that he was polluting, but it was hers� We’ll be able to get a new car, he said� And when she turned away to get him another beer, she kept her judging eyes downcast, so that he couldn’t read her, and see that

– 57 –

her heart, her stomach, were all turning from him�

The scream from the kitchen broke through her reverie� Immediately, Kate dropped her tools and ran to the kitchen� The bare bulb above the stove swung drunkenly� Joel was lying on the ground, covered in blood� His eyes were closed, his pale skin splattered with the viscous liquid that stained the cabinets and pooled about him on the floor�

She put her gloved hand to her mouth, forgetting, tasting the chemicals and staring� First there was nothing, but then, unbelievably, relief�

And then, swiftly, self-loathing, and panic, the maternal in her tardy, but not absent� She sunk to her knees and dragged his head to her lap, puzzled by the warmth of him, the steady pulse beneath the fingers cradling his neck� She saw the pot next to Joel’s legs, and then saw that Joel’s red coating was actually the handmade tomato sauce�

“What?” her lips formed a perfect o�

His eyes opened, and not for the first time, she felt she was holding the very miniature of her husband� Joel then jumped out of her lap and threw his head back, laughing wildly� “Ha! You thought I was dead, didn’t you? Aw… poor mummy� I knew it would be a good trick� You should’ve seen your face!”

Kate folded her arms behind her back to hide her shaking hands, and frowned at him, her heart thudding against her ribs� She had thought he was dead� “Not funny Joel� To your room� Now�”

Joel contorted his face to mimic hers, then snorted, before walking in the opposite direction of his room� She sighed; he didn’t seem to listen to her at the moment� Mark told her Boys just don’t really listen to their mothers, babe� I never listened to a word that came out of my mother’s mouth� And not just because she was a stupid old cow� He told her this in front of Joel, laughing while he patted Joel’s head fondly�

The sauce was everywhere� Kate looked at the mess, at the newly mopped ground, then at her clothes� It would take a long time to get rid of those stains, she thought absently� She closed her eyes and it was there with her behind her lids; spots of black mould, spots of red sauce� She started to pick up the pot, and then froze at her memory� She thought he had died, and she remembered how she felt�

What kind of mother was she?

– 58 –

This was dangerous� It was dangerous to examine where ideas come from, and why, rising to the surface of her wearied mind� She was Mark’s wife, the mother to Joel and Sandra and Tom� She was theirs� There was a time before where she was something else, but it was so short; she had no time to even know herself before she became this other�

She still remembered Mark’s hot breath on her neck as they made love for the first time in high school� She dropped out in her final year to take care of Joel� How satisfied Mark had been to set her up in their old rental� His mockery of her friends, his disparagement of her family, until everything else just fell away, and it was just him, and them, and her� He scared her, intrigued her, told her he was his� When she was pregnant, she thought that he would be different� Maybe softer� Kate shook as she remembered her naive belief that he would take care of them— even back then, she knew deep down� But being able to escape someone who has pulled every other attachment from her was impossible� Maybe I could get a job, she had thought� But what were her skills? Scrubbing mould, cooking pasta, hiding from her own children?

She still remembered his promises and remembered tasting them for the hollow lies they were; all I’ll help you babe and Together, we can do anything� She fed off these hints of unity with hope— if you can befriend your captor, do you remain his slave?

She stood by the sink, absently wringing the sponge to sop up the sauce, but really, she was outside the door, down the road, heading for the hills, flying up into the sky� Around the sponge her fist clenched and released, clenched and released, like a heart�

Joel walked back into the room� “Mum?”

Clench and release�

“Mum?! I’m talking to you!” She knew that tone, she turned stiffly to meet his gaze�

“Dinner ready yet?” He asked�

She felt something snap; she could finally see the foundations� They were eating her alive�

– THE END –

– 59 –

LADYBIRD

B Y Z O E B A R K E R

– 60 –

It’s funny how life presents itself to you in moments and then all at once collects together like a leather-bound book� I see people as moments� Walking experiences, and what they choose to forget, I choose to remember�

Childhood was a dichotic blur of pink and blue� The world seemed to push me closer to the ‘beautiful’ things that I saw as dull� Boys dominated the games� Problem solving through jenga towers and building blocks that seemingly never stopped growing higher� I wanted to try� One table was surrounded by little people in dinosaur t-shirts, I made a bee-line directly towards them, avoiding the aeroplanes and race cars as I went, eager to get my hands on anything they were playing with� I reached my hand out for one of the blocks, but I was intercepted� The boy stood tall, like a red light controlling traffic�

“What are you doing?” he was leaning over the table, looking in my eyes condescendingly�

“I want to play with it�” I reached out for the block in his hand, he leaned back, guarding it behind his back�

“You can’t play with us, there isn’t enough space!” He gestured at the other boys standing around the table� Spectators on the sidelines, they watched� I felt smaller than ever before, crossing one leg behind the other and looking down at the table�

“But we all fit?” By this point the teacher noticed the tension unfolding around me� I just wanted to be there, but the ladybird boots that cased my feet drove me the other way� A line could have been drawn down the centre of the classroom, paper planes on one side, tea parties on the other� A pair of loving hands sat me down in the middle of a field of pink plastic, and before I knew it, that was where I wanted to be�

Abby was the first person I remember playing with at school� She has always been like the moments of anticipation before the bell rings� We would run around in fairy, or princess costumes, always pretending� We lived in the world of our minds� Barbie and Ken acted out our futures in a dream house, we played family, cooking meals on a plastic stove� All the while, watching the boys built those ever-growing towers higher�

My memories of night as a child were filled with shadows and voices, only my little brother for comfort� When I was 5, my dad would return home from work, bringing with him the stench of felt tip pens� The door would open, followed by the crash of keys on a table� My mum would bend over and collect is in her arms

– 61 –

quickly� It was then a race for who could make it to our room first� The shouting lasted late into the night� My brother and I would play games jumping between each other’s beds to distract ourselves� One night though, the shouting was louder, we bot lay, catatonic, hoping it would stop�

“Why are mummy and daddy always shouting?” My brother looked at we the way I imagine a baby bird looks as its parents before it jumps out of the nest to fly for the first time� Dad let out a loud yell and we could hear mum begin to cry� I shut my eyes tight, I don’t know why, maybe I thought it would help� “Jenny?” I could hear in his voice he was close to tears�

“I don’t know�” We didn’t say another word after that� I stayed up into the morning, watching the shadows creep outside the door� I didn’t want anything to hurt him� I watched the rain fall under the street lamp outside the window� Cars drove by, tires itching at the roads� I dared not sleep�

Eventually we learn that the world is not a fairy tale and your kingdom begins to shrink before your eyes� When I was 15, I was playing the part of the perfect girl in a role play, hiding what I thought was a flaw behind a forced smile�

“Jenny, what do you want to be?” I got asked this question often, but I always pretended like I had never heard it before�

“When I’m older?” She sat next to me on the grass, looking at the apple in her hand as though it were a mystery object, more interested in it than my answer� I can’t remember what I said, doctor, maybe lawyer� Her response has stuck with me� “How about you?” she stopped juggling her apple, a thoughtful expression smudged across her face�

“I’m not really sure, but one day I want to get married and have kids�” When you hear that enough, you convince yourself you want it too� I have a theory that as you get older, new moments don’t matter so much� They pass by faster, each moment taking up a smaller portion of your book than the one before� We save pages for the moments we expect to happen�

Hums of laughter� My mind jerked out of thoughts, back to reality� Henry bent over with his whole, tiny body to wrap his arms around a ball� My dad stood opposite him, clapping and holding out his hands to catch it� My mother sat in a chair, watching her husband play with Harry� Tia sat on her lap, counting the daisies she’d picked from the garden� Tia saw me behind the glass and pushing off my mother, accelerated towards me�

– 62 –

“Mummy!” she wrapped her arms half way around my legs and looked up at me, a smile printed across her face�

“Hello darling�” I reached my hand down and stroked her hair� The front door closed with a bang, followed by the crash of keys on a table� The man in a suit appeared�

“How are my two favourite princesses?”

– THE END –

– 63 –

B E A U T I F U LB Y Z O E W A T T S

– 64 –

What is the most beautiful thing in the world?

If you asked Jyn, whose brown hair was often seen in pig tails and whose glasses were always slipping down her nose, she would count

three answers off her hand:

“Perfect eyesight, storybooks��� and fire!”

Of course, Jyn never knew true beauty, until she met her baby brother�

Where she lived, the High Council regulated everything: from the climate and environment, to the white garments that were to be worn by the public, even the number of children in a household� Nothing was out of the ordinary- everything was to be the same, in order to ‘unite the community and prevent war’, as Jyn was taught, although, she wasn’t quite sure what ‘war’ meant anyway� The High Council didn’t see the beauty in anything, excluding the council-administered bonfires on the wheat field that burned rubbish from the hospital� Jyn could witness them from her bedroom window, and she regarded them as beauty in its brightest form�

However, the waiting room Jyn and her Father sat in now veered far from beauty� It was a very long room, where blank walls stretched down as far as she could see, as if you could walk down the corridor for years and never reach the end� The dull, white paint made the walls so identical that if there was absolutely nothing in the hallway, and she flipped her head upside down, she wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the floor and the ceiling� Who decided to decorate the most exciting room in the world, where new lives began and old ones changed forever, with the colour of ceramic bathroom tiles?

“If only someone made these walls the colour of fire, then maybe I wouldn’t be so bored,” Jyn thought�

Jyn was told the news a bit more than nine months ago� She had arrived home from school earlier than usual; the older boys had chased her all the way home� By the time she arrived, she felt like she was going to faint, and she struggled to open the door with her sweaty palms�

The interior of her home was as plain as the clothes she wore- no bright spectrum of colours, no picturesque paintings� Mother and Father stood up from the dining table as she entered�

Enormous grins crossed both of their faces, expressions that Jyn tried hard to recall exactly, for she hadn’t seen them smile in a long time�

– 65 –

“Jyn, we have news,” Mother began� “Big news�”

Jyn dropped her school bag on the floor and skipped over to her parents, hopping up onto the raised platform on which the table was situated�

“What is it? Am I getting a dog?” she asked eagerly�

Father chuckled: “Jyn, you’re old enough to know that dogs don’t actually exist�”

“You’re getting something even better�” Mother knelt down, her kind eyes meeting Jyn’s� “A new baby brother!”

Four months later, Mother was called to the hospital for a check-up� This was also the day that Mother and Father’s happiness seemed to fade; the last remaining flames of a bonfire, sizzling out in the ashes� Jyn had been so caught up in her own joy that it was only when she came by her parents’ room and heard them talking in hushed whispers that she noticed something was wrong�

“-disaster! When I applied for the injection-” Mother whispered, clearly furious�

“-said it was just a defect, that we can apply again-” Father tried to reassure her�

“-impossible! If there’s two then-”

“-assume we’d only get one-”

“Mother? Father?” Jyn called, pushing the door further open�

They jumped apart, startled by her sudden interruption�

“I’m going to sleep now,” Jyn said�

Quickly regaining their composure, Jyn’s parents presented a smile that Jyn deemed not exactly right� As she went to hug her, Mother struggled to bend down due to her swollen stomach, and Jyn noticed her strangely wet and bloodshot eyes� She wondered if it was the pregnancy, or if she had accidentally poked herself in the eyes, as Jyn had done many times�

A sudden commotion startled Jyn out of her reverie� Down the hall, nurses were spilling out of the room, crowding around a waiting family, and coming from inside the ward was a strangled wail, reminding Jyn of the sound that she’d wanted to make when the boy from next door bullied her incessantly about her glasses� The doctors hurriedly slammed the door shut behind them as they all fled back into the ward� Jyn wondered why on earth someone would be so sad over a baby, of all things�

She didn’t have time to ponder the possibilities though, as a short while after, Mother’s door finally opened� A nurse appeared in the doorway, wearing a surgical

– 66 –

mask and blue clothing over her normal clothes, alarming Jyn momentarily, for it was against the rules to wear the wrong attire�

“It’s time,” she said, her voice muffed by the mask�

Jyn’s face lit up with joy� She was going to see her brother at last!

Father turned to her� “I’m sorry Jyn, you can’t come in� You have to stay here�”

And just like that, her joy vanished� He walked into the room, the nurse closing the door behind him� A million voices echoed in her mind, trying to recount if she had done something horrible to deserve such cruelty� Jyn just stood there, staring incredulously at the closed door, which she now viewed as an insult�

“How rude!” she thought furiously� “This is so unfair!”

So, instead of returning to her seat like she was told, Jyn let her curiosity get the better of her� She crept over to the door, twisted the handle slowly, and peered through the small gap� Doctors obstructed her view at first, all of them crossing the room back and forth, too busy with their tasks to notice the tiny spy� Jyn could make out Father through the fuss, standing next to a bed, talking to someone� Her eyes widened when she realised it must be Mother�

“But��� What about the baby? Why isn’t Father with him? Is Mother hurt?”

As Jyn watched, Father was called over to a corner of the room, where two nurses stood� They seemed to each be carefully cradling an object, both covered in blankets, almost as if the objects were���

A small memory echoed in her mind- one of the boys in the school playground had told the story of a mother who gave birth to six children at once� Or was it seven? Nevertheless, Jyn wasn’t one to believe such a silly tale- no mother could deliver more than one child at once, it was impossible! And even if it was true, the High Council certainly wouldn’t allow it�

The more Jyn saw of the room, the more confused she became� Father nodded to the nurses and returned to Mother’s side� Jyn’s eyes followed one of the nurses, who took her object into a smaller room, while the other handed the second off to another doctor� Jyn was just able to see the events that unfolded through a convenient, small window in the door to the small room� The nurse laid her object down, unravelled the blankets and lifted up a miniature tool, of which Jyn couldn’t recall the name� It wielded a long, slender, menacing point, as if just looking at it could pierce skin� Clear liquid dripped from the tip of the point as the nurse pushed down on the end of the tool, drops of the substance resembling

– 67 –

a thick venom that laced the teeth of the monsters Jyn had read about in her storybooks�

Before she could stop herself, Jyn gasped at the confronting sight, exposing herself to a nearby doctor� While he seemed alarmed at first, he swiftly moved to close the door on her, but not before Jyn caught a glimpse of the nurse in the small room dumping the mystery object through a chute in the wall�

Whatever was going on, Jyn just wished that the baby was okay�

~~~~~~~

And indeed he was� Three months later and baby Aro was better than a dog could ever be, not that she would know�

He had innocent, chubby cheeks that felt like pillows to the touch; an aura of purity and innocence, that brought Jyn joy, even when school had been especially upsetting; and of course, his tiny, fragile fingers that Jyn loved to wiggle, making cooing noises and bringing a toothless smile to his adorable face�

The night that he had come home for the first time was when Jyn realised Aro was the most beautiful thing in the world� It wasn’t perfect eyesight, or storybooks, or even the brightest fire, it was this small, effortlessly beautiful baby�

Jyn thought that Mother and Father would return to normal after Aro’s birth, yet, they did not� Jyn didn’t think it was normal for mothers to skip dinner time to cry by themselves in their rooms� After all, she had brought a new life into this world! Father had reassured Jyn that she was just tired, that pregnancy had taken its toll�

Together, Aro and Jyn looked out from Jyn’s bedroom window onto the wide, wheat field, admiring the night sky and the familiar orange light flickering in the distance, looking much bigger this time around� Jyn noticed, for the first time, two figures walking back and forth from the chute that protruded from the side of the hospital� They were carrying objects from the chute and tossing them into the bonfire� The fire would build height, as if bursting with happiness that its hunger had been satisfied, smoke billowing skywards, savouring its freedom�

“Hey, Aro,” she whispered� “Look! That’s called ‘fire’� Isn’t it beautiful?”

Despite its beauty, Baby Aro began to cry�

– THE END –

– 68 –

A F T E R

O U R

L I V E S

A L E X S O M L Y A Y

– 69 –

The ashes are so heavy in her hands -- like concrete� The urn pulses with her breath� Ellen traces the inscription, again and again, as if her fingers will see something her eyes can’t� Her mother’s name, Elizabeth, meets

her nails� Outside the car window, the horizon begins to bleed� Wind whistles, pawing at the wildflowers, the beach grass�

“I guess it’s time�”

Ellen unlocks the car door, her cardigan catching the breeze� The grey wool spreads out like two silvery wings� Her body shivers, cold coiling around her chest� Beside her, worn smooth by the sea, the beach awaits� She counts each step closer� It feels infinite and unceasing�

Seabirds circle�

How beautiful, she thinks� The flocks furrow and fold� Mother would have loved that -- like poem made of wings�

A memory of a morning.

Sunlight slams against the car windows, and Ellen thinks she is dying� She can feel her throat throb, ruby hot� Her limbs melt into the car seat� She’s glued in place� Elizabeth turns the radio up, the loud laugh of music echoing out� Outside, the highway blurs and blurs to white�

They are moving, for the seventh time� Ellen can feel the weight of her suitcase, packed with the entirety of her life� Her dad’s pocket watch� Princess dresses� A second hand Barbie� The old house felt so far away�

“Mummy said we’d be moving interstate� We’re going on an adventure�”

Ellen whispers to her teddy� It remains silent�

No one wants to bear bad news�

“When we pull up to the gas station, do you want anything?”

Ellen can’t help but taste ice cream� It’d been a long time since she’d had ice cream� Since Mummy had lived with the man that worked at the zoo� He’d let her have whatever she wanted from the kiosk�

“Some ice cream?”

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“Sure baby�”

They drive, and drive, and drive�

There is no ice cream� But her mother sings for a while, church hymns and fairytales� Even poems, when Ellen is half-asleep, and the outside world is dark and neon-lit� Tennyson and Eliot; dreams of families, dreams of dreams�

Something new starts on the radio, strung through with the sound of a heart beating� A song of myself.

Ellen tries to focus on the road�

Memories, shadowed, buried, start their creep� They blur with the outside world, and Ellen sees it all play again� Her father going (or one of many men)� The long days spent unpacking her new life -- the princess dresses a little less pink� A new house, half-rotted at the foundations, tooth brown� The weeping and bed wetting, week on week� Her mother, away, always away working� Grey and efficient; a machine�

Eating cheap doughnuts, vomit sweet, on the front porch� Weeding neighbour’s gardens to pay bills� Painting friends on fences, stick-figure families with fathers and sisters� Visiting the beach, each summer, accompanied by her drawing pad and stolen pencils� Listening to Elizabeth apologise -- about everything, nothing� The absence of her in the house, cold and shadowed; the shape of a ghost�

A song screeches to static.

Her thoughts jerk, frantic and drunk� Her knuckles slam the radio, a winning punch� Another channel plays� The shiver of jazz� She must have driven too far from the last station�

Ellen tries to focus on the road� She wishes she remembered the poems her mother wrote� A long drive home rolls, on and on�

There are only so many ways to watch a person die�

You can do what Ellen did� Be so close to saying sorry, close enough to give a

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smile� Get news on a phone call, about distance and devastation� Let your mind sift through images, a thousand miles away�

Roads twist, turn to highways, like rivers seas�

When Ellen turned eighteen, she ran away�

One route led to next� She made friends in seasonal varieties -- goth, punk, rich girl, smart-ass� Shed them for strange boys in autumn, with strange friends and strange eyes� Kissed bottles of brown beer, thick and foamy� Let life feel like something worth living, something that was free, and rich� Ellen would send letters (poems attached -- Atwood, Whitman, Pound) every Christmas�

Time cycled on� Ellen cannot hear the radio� Cicadas and their night hymns have stolen the sound� How long does she have left? Am I doing the right thing? Where am I going to stay? What am I going to say?

She writes a monologue in a space� It repeats itself on her lips, silent, as the car drifts�

All the words unsaid.

A goodbye is still stuck between her teeth�

Leaving, I leave you again.

She finds it hard to believe these ashes are so heavy�

Like this is all a dream and she can wake up, and the only weight is that of her bedsheets, or the sun�

She cradles her mother, taking small steps closer towards the beach� Wind whistles in her ears, a morning lullaby� Birds begin to fill the sky, black against pale blue� Unfolding wings, glistening� They fill the air with their cries� Roaring, like a Plath poem; wild and grieving�

Her sneakers meet the water, soaking themselves� She wades a little further until the wetness reaches her thighs� Foam whispers behind her; the waves push against her body� She dips her arms�

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Cold fingers twist the metal cap of the urn, and she feels the dryness within start to shift�

She shakes the urn, and the ashes pour out� So much blackness, dark, almost like dirt or dust� It stains the waves grey�

“I always loved you.”

Sand sticks to her tears, and her heart feels empty� The sadness of solace.

Ellen turns, takes the urn, and walks to shore� She will mourn, and the past will haunt her� But not now, not for a while.

Seabirds circle and swirl, small against the dawn�

– THE END –

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